For several months, the New Braunfels company has been selling a line of brineless single-serve pickles to a receptive but still uncertain public. The pickles are made in brine and taste like regular pickles but are packaged without the brine.

Chris Snider, the company's sales manager and spokesman, said it's a first-of-its-kind product that can take both consumers and retailers by surprise.

The public is used to seeing pickles swimming in brine, and Tito's dill pickle is in a clear package flushed with nitrogen to stay fresh.

But when they taste the pickle, they are won over. Snider said Tito's won rave reviews when it introduced the pickle in March at the ShoWest theater industry trade show in Las Vegas.

Two regional accounts followed, one of them with San Antonio-based Santikos Theatres, and a national account is in the works, Snider said.

Meghan Vincent, Santikos' spokeswoman, said the cleanliness of the product and how easy it is to store has boosted its popularity as more theaters try it. It's available in seven of Santikos' eight locations.

“People really do seem to like it,” she said.

Snider said the new product is competitively priced with other pickles and often provides better value because its packaging is not weighed down with brine.

Tito's officials would not discuss specific sales numbers or projections for the new line of pickles. The key component in a broader expansion of Tito's products over the past year.

But with the number of people who eat pickles and their potential appeal as a healthy snack, Snider said the company foresees “meaningful” growth to theaters, stadiums, convenience stores and elsewhere.

“We could be doing more sales for pickles than for jalapeños,” he said.

Pickle Packers International Inc., which represents both pickle manufacturers and suppliers, said Americans eat more than 9 pounds of pickles per person each year. Dill pickles are the most popular variety, its website said.

The pickle market is also one that has held steady over the economic downturn because more people are preparing foods at home. Brian Bursiek, executive vice president of the association, said people who like pickles are using them more.

Snider said the company added five growers — most from Texas, but a few from Mexico — to produce the cucumbers that make the brineless pickles.

The nitrogen-flushing technique Tito's uses in packaging has been applied to the company's jalapeños and other packaged products for years, said Snider, who is the son of Ron Snider, who owns the food company with Darrell Sollberger of New Braunfels.

Chris Snider called the expansion into brineless pickles a natural progression for the company. It employs 10 people and is expecting to grow.